1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector.
2. Related Art
A connector disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3419689 is provided with a housing (female housing) connectable to a mating housing and a slider (spring holder) to be mounted movably to an advanced position and a retracted position with respect to the housing. The housing includes a lock arm. In the process of connecting the two housings, the lock arm is deflected and deformed. When the two housings are properly connected, the lock arm is displaced in a return direction to be locked to the mating housing, whereby the two housings are held in a connected state.
The slider is supported slidably on the lock arm. The slider is held at the advanced position in the process of connecting the two housings and brought to the retracted position by a spring force of a coil spring when the two housings are connected properly. Further, the slider includes an unlocking portion covering a rear end part of the lock arm from above (side opposite to a deflection space for the lock arm) at the refracted position.
When the slider is pushed forward against the spring force of the coil spring and the unlocking portion is pushed down in that state by receiving an operating force in the case where the two housings are in a properly connected state, the rear end part of the lock arm is pushed down toward the deflection space, whereby a locked state of the lock arm is released and the two housings can be pulled apart from each other. Thus, according to the above configuration, there is an advantage of more easily securing a wide operation area for an unlocking operation than when unlocking is effected by directly pressing the rear end part of the lock arm.
However, in the above case, if the operation area of the unlocking portion is made excessively wide, a height of the unlocking portion tends to become larger and a height of the entire connector may become larger. Particularly, if the rear surface of the unlocking portion is used as an operating surface for pushing when the slider is pushed to the advanced position, the height of the unlocking portion becomes even larger.
Further, since the slider is only placed on the upper surface of the lock arm, external matters such as a wire easily enter the deflection space arranged below the rear end part of the lock arm. If a wire having entered the deflection space is lifted upwardly, the lock arm may be caught by the wire and turned up.
The present invention was completed based on the above situation and aims to provide a connector capable of avoiding the turning up of a lock arm and suppressing a height increase.